Operations Excellence Practitioner

About the role

The Operations Excellence Practitioner serves as a continuous improvement expert supporting multiple sites by leading high-impact initiatives that advance the ROOT Operational Excellence program.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate current-state processes against industry best practices and performance benchmarks to identify improvement opportunities.
• Prioritize continuous improvement initiatives based on return on investment, operational impact, and level of effort.
• Act as a subject matter expert in developing, piloting, and improving CI programs, standards, and methodologies within the ROOT Operational Excellence framework.
• Execute short- and long-term continuous improvement projects across sites, including planning, implementation, tracking, and documentation of process changes.
• Apply structured problem-solving methods and CI tools to eliminate causes of inefficiencies, margin erosion, and non-value-added activities.
• Analyze KPI and performance data to assess results, validate financial impact, and adjust improvement actions as needed.
• Create and maintain site-specific dashboards, reports, and metrics to demonstrate progress, sustainability, and long-term impact.
• Develop and deploy continuous improvement training and activities to support ROOT, Ardent Mills Operational Excellence program, across multiple sites.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, industrial engineering, mechanical engineer, or a related field or 4-6+ years of experience in Continuous Improvement for manufacturing.
• Experience with continuous improvement, 5S, lean manufacturing, kaizen, lean six sigma, root cause analysis, and value stream mapping.
• Technical acumen including systems and data visualization.
• Excellent written and verbal communication including facilitation skills.
• Up to 40% travel.
• Knowledge of capital expenditure process and requirements.
• Proficiency in using various operations systems.
• Leadership, coaching, and/or mentoring.
• Good to have: Lean, Six Sigma, or related certification.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced and changing environment.
• Ability to communicate with all levels of the organization.
• Experience delivering transactional process improvement.
• Flexibility and diplomacy with coworkers.
• Ability to make decisions as well as influence decision-making.
• Ability to weigh and manage priorities.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and programs simultaneously.

Qualifications

• Physical Requirements and Working Conditions: Ability to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) as is required by the operating areas. Ability to work a machine-paced continuous process that operates 24 hours a week with conditions which include: Heat/cold temperatures (inclement weather), Indoor/outdoor environment, Dusty environment, Noisy environment, Frequent moving/vibration/motion of equipment/process, Elevated places, to include stairs/ladders.

Skills

• Strong analytical skills.
• Practical operational insight.

Benefits

• Competitive Compensation: We provide market-driven base pay, based on skills, abilities, and level of experiences. Our salary ranges are broad, and individual salary will be market competitive based on a candidate’s unique set of skills and level of experience. The starting range for this position is $102,600.00 - $136,896.10, with additional earning potential possible commensurate with experience.
• Annual Bonus: Bonus - OIP, 15%.
• Medical, Dental and Vision Coverage.
• Health and Dependent Savings Accounts.
• Life and Disability Programs.
• Voluntary Benefit Programs.
• Company Sponsored Wellness Programs.
• Retail Savings with Company Match.
• Team Member and Family Assistance Program (EAP).
• Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays.
• Employee Recognition Program with Rewards (RAVE).

Pay

Starting range for this position is $102,600.00 - $136,896.10, with additional earning potential possible commensurate with experience.

Schedule

Full time.